Measurement Electronics for a Stretchable Capacitive Sensor Array

• Ja’Den Chandler, Electrical Engineering, University of Delaware

• Nathan Lazarus, Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Delaware

A 10 × 10 through-hole capacitor measurement array was designed in KiCad to support research on wearable and stretchable electronic devices. The project was inspired by a graduate research platform developed to measure electrical energy transmitted from a user’s fingertips through a capacitive sensor array.

The objective of the project was to develop a customizable printed circuit board (PCB) that enables researchers to easily install, replace, and evaluate through-hole capacitors with different capacitance values. The array consists of 100 pin sockets arranged in a 10 × 10 matrix, allowing capacitors to be rapidly interchanged without soldering. Each row of the array was assigned a unique capacitance value ranging from 1 pF to 10 pF, while each column contains capacitors of the same capacitance value to provide consistent and repeatable testing conditions.

To facilitate electrical characterization, the PCB incorporates 20 test points (10 row test points and 10 column test points), enabling voltage measurements to be obtained at specific capacitor intersections within the array. The complete schematic and PCB layout were designed using KiCad and prepared for fabrication.

This modular platform provides a flexible and reusable tool for evaluating the effects of different capacitance values on sensor performance and supports ongoing research in capacitive sensing technologies for wearable and stretchable electronic devices.